Close your eyes and think back to your school days. Start with high school, then junior high, and keep going until you reach that very first day of kindergarten. 

Odds are you weren’t picturing homework assignments or late-night study sessions. Instead, you were probably remembering a teacher who made you feel like you mattered. They might have helped you tie your shoes on the first day of kindergarten, or encouraged you to try out for the soccer team in junior high, or possibly even wrote you a hall pass after you slept through your alarm one morning. Whatever the case, the teachers who made you feel valued and appreciated as a child have a way of staying with us for our entire lives—and sometimes even shaping our future. 

For Jordan Chiles, that person is Patti Gaines, who teaches Family and Consumer Sciences at her former high school in Vancouver, WA. 

Two months ago, Patti sat in the middle of her classroom, having been told she was getting an award and being filmed for a project. As she waited, the school’s marching band sounded off in the hallway, erupting in the school’s fight song and marching into the band room in a single-file line. Suddenly, she broke into a smile, seeing Jordan jump out to surprise her from the back of the line. 

“I knew it would be you,” Patti said, laughing and wrapping Jordan in a........

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